Outsourcing your content production to an agency partner has many benefits ,which we have written about before, but unlocking those benefits requires setting yourself up for success. So how do you do that?
Well, having worked with organisations of all sizes from around the world, here are some of our key recommendations.
Be clear on budget
It’s important to establish your budget from the start – and to understand what that budget will get you.
There are many ways you can work with an agency partner:
- Project basis – where you agree a fixed price for a once-off project
- Time and materials – where you pay only for the hours the team spends on work. This is great if you want a lot of flexibility as you can ramp up when you need the extra resources and scale back when you don’t.
- Ongoing retainer – where you agree a monthly budget to be spent on a variety of work – from smaller copywriting tasks to bigger design briefs and even strategic support.
Once you’ve decided on the best fit for you, make sure to agree how you want to be billed – monthly, upfront or at the end of a project or, perhaps, at key milestones.
Dedicate time to onboarding
When you work with an external partner, they bring a wealth of experience and expertise in their field – but one thing they don’t have (yet) is your level of understanding of the business.
This isn’t a bad thing. In fact, that outsider’s perspective can really shake things up.
But, good communication and marketing should tie back to business goals, so it’s important to offer an onboarding process that gives the outsourced team important insider information. Things like:
- Your USP and positioning guidance
- Tone of Voice
- Style and brand guidelines
- Product insights
- Audience insights
For smaller businesses, these types of documents don’t always exist, or might need to be updated. Don’t panic. When we work as an outsourced team, part of what we do is help to develop these.
Be clear on communication
An agency partner should feel like an extension of your team.
That means it’s important to agree on how best to communicate – in terms of both channels and frequency. After all, when you’re paying for their time do you want them to be in meetings that they don’t really need to be part of?
Instead, consider asynchronous working tools – like Microsoft Teams or Slack – to manage all communication. You can also schedule weekly meetings for that face-to-face time if required.
Then there’s feedback. This can often be a sticking point and create delays. Identify the main stakeholders and agree upfront on how feedback will be briefed in and who will be responsible for coordinating this.
One of the benefits of working with an outsourced team is having a dedicated account manager that can take a lot of the heavy lifting off you. They’ll coordinate diaries of all creatives and stakeholders (potentially across multiple time zones), schedule meetings when needed, manage deadlines and generally keep everything moving on time and on budget.
Be open to new ideas (but set clear boundaries too)
If you’ve always wanted to diversify your content but haven’t had the in-house resources or expertise to do it, take advantage of having an outsourced content team.
They’ll be able to create animated videos; organise high-quality shoots with your people; set up microsites; build interactive quizzes. In fact, they can do a whole heap of things you might never even think of doing. Simply, tell them the problem and work together to find a solution.
But, remember that not all ideas will work for all audiences or businesses, so remember to always act as the voice of your customers and focus on what matters to your brand – not what’s simple or trendy.
Choosing the right partner
Like any relationship, success comes down to choosing the right partner for you.
Some questions to consider:
- Do they work with companies like us? Try find an agency partner that has experience working with clients just like you. This will give you peace of mind that they have some foundational knowledge of your industry and/or your audience.
- Do they have the right expertise? Bringing in an outsourced team is not just about cost-saving. It’s about plugging skills gaps in your team, so make sure the agency you choose has the right skills to give you the best support.
- Do they demonstrate good stakeholder management? A big part of communications and marketing is stakeholder management. You need to find a partner that has experience managing multiple stakeholders (like we do!).
